On March 13, 2020 I thought my life would never be the same. I couldn't see my friends for months. I couldn't go to school. I couldn't go to dance. I could barely go to my moms house. Staying home was the only option. Quarantine did give me the opportunity to bake more, bond with my siblings, and to get into different genres of music. Not only did I bond with two of my younger siblings but I got a new baby sister in mid-September. When my sister was born in the middle of the pandemic I was worried. She was premature and had to stay in the hospital an hour away from where we live. I didn't just have to worry about my sister but my mom as well. My mom had a ruptured spleen which caused my sister to have to be born early. Throughout the whole quarantine the moment I heard about my mom and sister was when I felt the most afraid. My mom and baby sister are happy and healthy now. I make sure that we get to visit them. Baking was my outlet; my distraction. A place I could use to escape. I felt like I was watching the world around me crumble but as long as I was baking it would all be okay. I've been practicing baking an array of different things. From classic chocolate chip cookies to the delicate French Macaron. I don't really know when the passion I have for baking started but being able to stay home and hours a day to practice helped me to love baking even more. Of course while baking made me happy it didn't always help. Problems still came such as when my grandparents would be not so nice about my passion. One of my grandmothers has never thought baking was the right thing for me to do. They would always say things that hurt. So I decided that baking at night was better than in the daytime when everyone was there to distract me. At night no one was awake, no one could say anything or bug me. I felt like I was protected when the moon was out. However, not all of my family has hurt my feelings. My dad has always supported me. He buys me ingredients to use to make him treats. He likes it best when I make him truffles, they are my specialty. They are filled with cheesecake filling, a brownie wrapped around the filling, and coated in melted chocolate and graham cracker crumbs. Truffles are too sweet for me but he likes them. One of his friends' kids loves them. Now it's 2021 and we are back in school in-person. Being back in person has definitely helped me. I get to see my friends and work in a better environment. My grades got better and I feel like I got happier. Staying home was fun at the beginning. I got to sleep in and didn't have to worry about classes but it got tiring after a month of repeating the same cycle. I felt like getting dressed became too much and getting out of bed was a challenge. Which I'm sure most people can agree that they felt that way at one point or another throughout the quarantine season. Having a schedule again feels nice. Now that some things are starting to open I get to go back to dance and see my friends there. Dance has been a weekly thing for the past 8 years. So not being able to go every week felt off to say the least. However this dance season for me is kind of bittersweet since it is most likely going to be my last year. I have decided that since I'm going to be a senior next year that I am going to need more time. I know that only three hours a week might not seem like a lot but once it's close to recital time it becomes overwhelming. This usually leads to some issues since finals week is the same as recital week. It may seem like the end but it's not. I will continue to dance as a pass time in the future. Hopefully this will just be a short break period. While quarantine wasn't the best thing in the world it did give me time to think. If quarantine didn't happen I wouldn't have continued working towards my dream as a pastry chef. I might not have gotten a baby sister. I might not have developed such a good relationship with my eight year old sister. On the other hand I might have had more opportunities. I was supposed to go to my first ever concert with two of my friends in April of 2020 but Covid took that opportunity away from me. I was going to see one of my favorite groups, BTS. BTS is one of the most famous kpop groups at the moment as their music has really helped me through a lot. I think that being in quarantine helped me to get into them more and understand why people liked them so much. Since quarantine my mind is more open. If someone had told me freshman year that I was going to like kpop I would have immediately turned them down. The close minded person I once was is now more open to things for different cultures and different types of beliefs people have. That's what growing up in an extremely conservative christain household can do to you. It can mold you to be narrow-minded. However, this may not be the case for some. Overall quarantine sucked but I'm glad it happened.